Allies despair as Trump abandons America's leadership role at a time of global crisis
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The United States has scaled back its role on the world stage, taken actions that are undermining efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic and left the international community without a traditional global leader, according to experts, diplomats and analysts.
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The US -- usually at the head of the table helping to coordinate in global crises -- has declined to take a seat at virtual international meetings convened by the World Health Organization and the European Union to coordinate work on potentially lifesaving vaccines.
Former world leaders warn that the Trump administration risks alienating allies by politicizing the deadly pandemic with its push to punish China and have other nations choose sides.
The administration's decision to halt funding for the WHO, the world body best positioned to coordinate the global response to the raging pandemic, has appalled global health officials.
On Friday the US blocked a vote on a UN Security Council resolution that called for a global ceasefire aimed at collectively assisting a planet devastated by the outbreak. The US did not want any reference to the WHO in the text and rejected a compromise version that didn't directly mention the organization -- and instead cited the UN's "specialized health agencies," according to two diplomats familiar with the process.
The US has similarly blocked expressions of global unity at G7 and G20 meetings due to anger about China and the WHO.
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- Thomas Gomart, director of the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations, said that Europe was watching Trump's response to the pandemic in amazement, calling his behavior "stranger than fiction."
- "He provides for us a very mixed balance of amusement and a sadness, which is just not what is expected from a US president," Gomart said, an assessment that Spain's Javier del Pino, a leading journalist, shared. "The way we look at Trump, it was a lot of fun at first," del Pino said. "It's not funny anymore."
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